Paul of Samosata Bethlehem in —‘‘the Psalms were sung in Greek, Latin, and Syriac in
this order.’’^78
Towards the middle of the fourth century we find the hermit Hilarion, in
the desert outside Gaza, questioning a Frankish officer of Constantius in Ara-
maic, and miraculously causing the man to answer likewise; Hilarion then
repeated his question in Greek. He was clearly in fact bilingual; he came
from a village near Gaza and in his youth had been to study with agram-
mateusin Alexandria. Aramaic was evidently common, but not universal, in
the towns of this area. Retailing an incident when Hilarion visited Elusa,
Jerome emphasises that the place wassemibarbarus: a large crowd abandoned
a festival of Venus which was in progress there and greeted Hilarion with
shouts ofBarech—‘‘Bless [us].’’^79 In we find in Gaza itself a child, seized
by divine possession, calling out in Aramaic instructions for the burning of
the temple of Marnas there, and repeating them in Greek when interrogated
by the bishop, Porphyry. But, when interrogated herself, his mother swears
that neither she nor her son knows Greek.^80
From Syria proper we do not have so much clear evidence. But Jerome
speaks of a hermit named Malchus living in a village thirty miles east of An-
tioch—‘‘A Syrian [Syrus], by nationality and language, as a native of the same
place would be,’’ though in fact he says later that the man was by origin an
immigrant from Nisibis.^81 But what of Antioch itself? Theodoret, who was
born and educated in Antioch, and was bishop of Cyrrhus in the first half
of the fifth century, wrote entirely in Greek but certainly knew Aramaic
and used his knowledge in interpreting the Bible.^82 It is not likely, however,
that he learnt it in Antioch itself. For the clearest indication of the linguis-
tic situation there comes from John Chrysostom, who in a sermon preached
in the city describes the country people coming in for a Christian festival as
a ‘‘people different from us so far as their language is concerned, but kin to
us in their faith.’’^83 It seems indisputable that he means that, characteristi-
. Jerome,Ep.,(PLXXII, CSELLV, ).
. Jerome,Vit. Hil.,,,(PLXXIII , –).
. Marc. Diac.,Vit. Porph. –, ed. H. Grégoire and M.-A. Kugener ().
. Jerome,Vita. Malchi– (PLXXIII, ).
. That he was a native Aramaic speaker would be an improper deduction from the
modesty of his own claim to Greek culture inGraec.affect.curatio(PGLXXXIII, ). But
that he understood spoken Aramaic is clear from the incident inHist. Relig.(PGLXXII,
); cf. n. .
. John Chrys.,Hom. ad pop. Ant. I(PGXLIX, ); cf.Serm. de mart.(PGL, ).
On the other hand,Hom. Matt.,(PGLVII, ), seems to imply the presence of some
Aramaic speakers in his audience, hence in the city.